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Episodes
Who is Scott Morrison?
06 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Morrison shares a rhetorical lineage with Robert Menzies and a suburban one with John Howard. Like Menzies, he has no clear policy agenda. But, ...
Trump, Morrison, money and the drought
03 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As Scott Morrison tried to shift Australia’s focus to the drought, and the cash rate fell below 1 per cent, Donald Trump’s paranoia followed the p...
What drives Penny Wong
02 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Penny Wong is the intellectual leader of the Labor Party. Her politics is shaped by her experiences of difference and her belief in compassion. Her bi...
Almonds are the devil’s nut
01 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Murray–Darling Basin is being ruined by cronyism and incompetence. Entire towns are running out of water. But a new crop is exploiting the syste...
Part two: The sentencing of Jaymes Todd
30 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The judge who sentenced Jaymes Todd for the rape and murder of Eurydice Dixon was asked to consider mitigating factors that included Todd’s age, his...
Part one: The murder of Eurydice Dixon
29 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One of the terrible facts about the day Jaymes Todd killed Eurydice Dixon is that for him it was almost all very ordinary. Sarah Krasnostein on a crim...
Convicting a Newcastle priest
25 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When former Anglican dean Graeme Lawrence was found guilty of child sexual abuse, his victim, Ben Giggins, made the unusual decision to request that t...
Running the NDIS
24 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As a royal commission into disability care begins, it emerges that key emails relating to the NDIS are held on a private bank server and cannot be acc...
Death of the speech
23 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The death of Graham Freudenberg comes at a time when politics has all but abandoned speech making. Don Watson on how the loss of big narratives denies...
Inside the Tanya Day inquest
22 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Tanya Day was a 55-year-old Yorta Yorta woman. She died after being arrested on a train for public drunkenness. Madeline Hayman-Reber on how a coroner...
Scott goes to Washington
19 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Tomorrow, Scott Morrison will be received in Washington on a state visit. The trip highlights the special relationship he has with Donald Trump. At th...
What’s eating Philip Lowe
18 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Philip Lowe is the governor of the Reserve Bank. By all accounts, he is a conventional person who’s been pushed by the economy to make unconventiona...
Return to Timor-Leste
17 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Twenty years after Timor-Leste’s vote for independence led to bloody retaliation from Indonesia, the country’s relationship with Australia remains...
Scott Morrison’s poverty fix
16 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As Scott Morrison announces plans to expand the cashless welfare program and drug test dole recipients, questions are raised over the effectiveness of...
Inside the meat disco
15 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Spiro Boursinos was the impresario behind the rave music phenomenon Earthcore. When he died last year, he left behind a legacy of paranoia, intimidati...
Holding onto Gladys Liu
12 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
While some backbenchers doubt that Gladys Liu can stay in parliament, Scott Morrison has given her his full support. At the same time, he is in the di...
The Daddy Quota
11 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When Annabel Crabb decided to find out what happens to men’s work habits when they have children, she discovered a huge store of gendered norms and ...
Christian Porter’s integrity commission
10 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As ICAC exposes apparent corruption in New South Wales, focus is drawn on the government’s integrity commission, which, among other things, could no...
Inside the Adani blockade
09 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There is fresh momentum behind the Adani mine in central Queensland, as the state government pushes through approvals and native title is extinguished...
The revolving door
08 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System has heard evidence of dysfunction, inflexibility and underfunding. It has also heard perso...
What Morrison didn’t expect in Biloela
05 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Morrison government has been flatfooted by public outrage over its plan to deport a family from Biloela. Attempts to recapture the narrative have ...
The truth about wages
04 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Josh Frydenberg’s appeal for companies to address wage stagnation underscores the lack of government policy in the area. It also highlights how the ...
American secrets
03 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As Brian Toohey releases his major book on national security in Australia, he reveals that American spies have been working here without detection. Ka...
Reporting the Panama Papers
02 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Panama Papers were the largest leak in financial history. They helped expose tax evasion and misdeeds that ensnared major companies and foreign go...
Badiucao, Chinese dissident
01 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Months before the latest mass protests began in Hong Kong, the Chinese government shut down an art exhibition in the city. The work was by Badiucao, a...
Timor bug, China spy
29 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As Scott Morrison celebrates Timor-Leste’s independence, tension over the Witness K case continues to undermine the relationship. At the same time, ...
Home Affairs’ propaganda machine
28 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When a communications agency started contacting members of the Muslim community for social media training, it seemed like their intentions were to ele...
Inside the Greens
27 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Greens is a party with a leader who many think is too mainstream, struggling with the growing pains of infighting and factionalism. The party’s ...
Scott Morrison’s middle class
26 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Morrison has made a new appeal to the group he calls the “Quiet Australians”. He says they have a “trust deficit” with the public servic...
Grief, anger and climate change
25 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Joelle Gergis is one of Australia’s leading climate scientists. She says the current modelling is worse than previously thought. She also says the m...
Scott Morrison vs. the World
22 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
After unhappy scenes at the Pacific Islands Forum, Scott Morrison is making a tour of Vietnam and then France for the G7. But his attempts at diplomac...
Drugs in swimming
21 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The furore over Australian swimmer Mack Horton’s stand against long-time rival Sun Yang underscores confusion about how drug testing in sport works....
Saving the birthing trees
20 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As the Andrews government attempts to negotiate treaty with First Nations people in Victoria, it is proceeding with a plan to bulldoze hundreds of sac...
Is China a threat?
19 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As Xi Jinping increases his power and ambition, there is tension over the influence China has in Australia. Progressive critics finds themselves align...
Booing Adam Goodes
18 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Adam Goodes is one of the great AFL players of his generation. His career was played, especially in its final seasons, at the intersection of race and...
Hastie and Morrison
15 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As the Morrison government begins its inquiry into press freedom, there is concern about the bipartisanship of the committee hearing it. At the centre...
Sperm in the time of Facebook
14 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A strict legal framework means there is a shortage of sperm donors across Australia. But online there is a huge and unregulated market of people willi...
Schoolyard bullies
13 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In the past decade, reports of teachers and principals being abused by parents have increased. Accounts range from intimidation to stalking. Jane Caro...
On politics and gambling
12 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The refusal of the major parties to hold a parliamentary inquiry into Crown Casino speaks to a larger and more pervasive relationship between politics...
Murdoch and the far-right
11 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For the first time ever, individual articles in the media can be linked to far-right recruitment drives. High on the list is reporting from The Austra...
Rodney Rude diplomacy
08 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A visit from key US ministers gives a clearer picture of what America wants from Australia. But as Trump’s trade war with China escalates, it also s...
A question of dignity
07 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The royal commission into aged care has heard evidence of extreme deprivation and mistreatment. It has also inquired into the toll taken on people car...
Racism and the judge
06 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Comments about Aboriginal people by a Northern Territory judge have led to widespread outrage. But the legal body whose clients were being addressed d...
The ballad of Trump and ScoMo
18 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Morrison has emerged as one of Donald Trump’s favourite leaders. But the association asks questions about race and crude politics. Chris Walla...
Understanding Scott Morrison’s Pentecostalism
17 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Morrison has always maintained that he doesn’t view the Bible as a policy handbook. But a former worshipper at Hillsong Church argues that Pen...
Guarding the henhouse
16 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Almost two years since changes were implemented following a royal commission into youth detention, tear gas is again being used on children in the Nor...
The truth about small government
15 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Morrison’s signature achievement could be the tax cuts he legislated earlier this month - although not for the reasons he believes. Over time,...
The extinction rebellion
14 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Extinction Rebellion is a global, non-violent protest movement, aimed at addressing climate change. The difference is that it is not focusing on one p...
A Voice and a prayer
11 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Morrison began the week praying in front of 21,000 people. He closed it promising a referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. Paul Bongio...
Surviving Australia’s biggest cult, The Family
10 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1960s, Anne Hamilton-Byrne set up Australia’s most notorious cult, The Family. Last month, she died. Martin McKenzie-Murray spoke to one of t...
Scott Morrison and the Laffer napkin
09 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Morrison’s tax cuts are based on an American theory of economics trialled in the 1970s. But the evidence since suggests trickle-down economics...
Cancelling citizens
08 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As the government produces new legislation to temporarily ban foreign fighters from returning to Australia, there is growing concern over whether exis...
The broken pendulum
07 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The pendulum that is used to predict outcomes in elections is broken. There is no longer a “national mood” or “national conversation”. Richard...
Faith and taxes
04 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As Scott Morrison’s tax cuts make their way through the parliament, there are fresh questions over religious freedoms. Paul Bongiorno on pragmatism ...
Repealing medivac
03 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As the government pushes to repeal the medivac legislation, lawyers and doctors contradict the arguments put against it. Martin McKenzie-Murray detail...
The sperm donor question
02 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A landmark high court decision has opened up new questions about how the law should define parenthood, especially for single women who conceive with t...
Mine on the moon
01 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The discovery of water ice on the moon has started a new race in space exploration. This time, it is driven by tech start-ups and venture capital. Cer...
Morrison’s inner circle
30 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Morrison’s inner circle is a group linked by faith and friendship – and now, the front bench. Some in this group trace their connections bac...
Condemned to interesting times
27 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As Labor loses party discipline over tax cuts, the Coalition enters into an ugly post-mortem of its leadership change. Paul Bongiorno on the jostle fo...
Israel Folau’s cycle of sin
26 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Israel Folau is the first Australian athlete to be sanctioned for his religious beliefs. His sacking by Rugby Australia has opened up a fissure in the...
Protest in Hong Kong
25 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As millions protest on the streets of Hong Kong, the democratic freedoms promised in the handover to China are being tested. Louisa Lim on the charact...
Rosie Batty’s private grief
24 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When Rosie Batty's son was murdered, she became a public figure. She felt a great urgency about the contribution she could make – but it took an ext...
The insecurity machine
23 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This election was shaped by two men with very different characters. One of them was defined by certainty and the other by his insecurities. Erik Jense...
Double bluffs and Cory Bernardi
20 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Despite a public commitment to passing their tax reforms as a single package, some in the Liberal Party see benefits in not getting the cuts through p...
Gaming the gaming industry
19 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Australia records higher losses from gambling than any country in the world. Our politics encourages the industry for the sake of tax revenues. James ...
Trade war now
12 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As the trade war escalates between China and the US, Australia is increasingly wedged. The country faces its biggest strategic challenge in modern his...
Breaking up big tech
11 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Where once it might have seemed radical, presidential hopefuls and tech entrepreneurs are now talking about breaking up the social media giants. Their...
Sacking Scott Morrison
10 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Before entering parliament, Scott Morrison ran Tourism Australia. He was sacked by the minister, but the details of what happened have never been made...
Rates, raids and meeting the Queen
06 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As Scott Morrison completes his first overseas trip since winning the election, there are worrying signs for the economy and for press freedom. Paul B...
Charlie Teo, virtuosic rebel
05 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Charlie Teo is Australia’s best-known surgeon. He is also the country’s most controversial specialist. Martin McKenzie-Murray on what defines Teo ...
A mistake of fact
04 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A law that allows drunkenness as a defence against criminal behaviour is the subject of a campaign for reform. But government is not listening and the...
Morrison’s broad church
03 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Morrison’s cabinet is a careful balance between those who backed him during last year’s leadership spill, and those who backed Peter Dutton....
Albanese speaking
02 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Anthony Albanese has been elected unopposed to lead the Labor Party. He sat down with his biographer, Karen Middleton, to talk about what just happene...
What Morrison did next
30 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
After the first sitting of Morrison’s joint party room, we have a clearer understanding of what the next parliament will be like. It’s one in whic...
From the Heart
29 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
After years of negotiation, the Uluru Statement from the Heart represents the clearest ever consensus for recognition of Indigenous Australians in our...
Death of a president
28 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Sprent Dabwido is a former president of Nauru who signed the deal with Australia to establish a detention centre there. Days before he died, he told M...
The Mothers’ Resistance
27 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The ParentsNext welfare program was designed to help disadvantaged parents back into work. In practice, it has been onerous and unforgiving for the mo...
Surprise: the status quo election
26 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Morrison’s surprise win last weekend was the status quo election no one saw coming. The vote was actually a repeat of 2010, and the country ha...
Trailer: A daily news show
30 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A daily news show from the publisher of The Monthly and The Saturday Paper. Hear from the country's best reporters, covering the news as it affects Au...